Coming off the best season in program history, the Nebraska basketball team continues to get all kinds of love from national analysts.
One ESPN analyst recently said the Huskers’ floor was the NCAA Tournament and the ceiling is 30 wins and a Big Ten title. Another analyst, Joe Lunardi, said NU will not just make the Big Dance next March, but will get a pretty decent No. 6 seed.
Even better than a high seed, Lunardi’s latest NCAA Bracketology has Nebraska damn near getting home court advantage for the first two rounds. This year, Omaha will host the first couple of rounds of the tournament as it has done in the past. Should the Huskers get the No. 6 seed there, it would be a heck of a chance for another run to the Sweet 16 at the very least.
This is admittedly very early bracketology based on what teams did last year and what Lunardi thinks their revamped rosters will do this year. The return of Pryce Sandfort and the continued rise of Braden Frager are almost certainly big reasons why NU is expected to be as good as they are.
Joe Lunardi projects Nebraska basketball as No. 6 seed in Omaha
Lunardi has the Huskers facing off against either Marquette or TCU as the 11-seeds. Should this prediction come true and NU wins the game, the second-round matchup would certainly be incredibly interesting, as the ESPN analyst believes they’ll likely face off against 3-seed Kansas.
The other side of the Omaha bracket, according to Lunardi, is No. 5 Texas Tech, No. 12 Wichita State, No. 4 Alabama, and No. 13 High Point. The most interesting part is that while there would be plenty of Nebraska fans there should the Huskers make the NCAA Tournament and play in Omaha, it would be interesting to see if they could take over the arena again, especially if Kansas were their second opponent.
When NU traveled to Oklahoma City, they played two teams in Troy and Vanderbilt whose fan base didn’t travel really at all. That led both opposing coaches to talk (and complain) about how the arena looked and sounded like a Nebraska home game. However, Jayhawks fans are used to figuring out how to get to places like Omaha, which is only three hours away.
Selection Sunday could turn into a race between the fans of both schools to see who can buy the most tickets.
Nebraska (and Kansas of course) still have to make the NCAA Tournament and play in Omaha for any of this to come true, but before the season even starts, this is yet another good reason for Cornhusker fans to be very excited for the upcoming season.
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